By JOHN M. HOOBER III, Staff
Five teenage boys were minding their own business near the East Petersburg borough park Sunday evening when a group of older youths got out of a car clutching baseball bats, Manheim Township police said.
The older group chased the teens, struck two of them with the bats, and then stole money, a skateboard and a cellular phone from the victims, police said.
One of those who was struck required stitches at a local hospital for a head injury, police said.
Police said the assault/robbery, which happened just before 7 p.m. Sunday, was not a random act.
"We are not looking at this as a roving band of guys with baseball bats," Sgt. Thomas Rudzinski emphasized.
The assailants, Rudzinski said, had been looking for a specific individual, and mistakenly thought he was one of the five teens by the park.
"These kids (assault/robbery victims) had no connection to the individual they were looking for. They believed he was in that group, but in fact he was not."
Nevertheless, Rudzinski said, police are extremely troubled by the incident because of its location, and officers are determined to find the assailants.
"This is horrible crime," the sergeant said. "This happened by a park in a community-oriented town. There are families and children who use this park. For this to happen there is a very serious, inappropriate, and uncalled-for act."
The park is by the 6000 block of Pine Street. The victims were one 16-year-old boy and four 15-year-olds, all from East Petersburg. The assailants were older males, possibly young adults, police said.
Earlier Sunday, two alleged shoplifters fled from the Ephrata Kmart store with about $400 worth of items, and one of them threatened a security guard with a pair of scissors, police said.
Enrique A. Ronolases-Roman, 28, Lancaster, and Luis D. Malave-Torres, 27, Rothsville, were both charged with retail theft and conspiracy. Malave-Torres was additionally charged with robbery, Ephrata police said.
Kmart security officers tried to stop the two men as they ran from the store at about 11 a.m. Sunday. They did corner Malave-Torres, but he pulled out a pair of scissors and made threatening gestures toward a security officer, police said.
Ephrata and Warwick Township police arrested the two men as they were walking in the first block of Church Street in Rothsville. Both were sent to Lancaster County Prison in default of bail.
Also on Sunday, Ephrata state police arrested a Florida man after receiving word he was threatening his estranged girlfriend and others at a Brecknock Township home and doing damage to the residence.
David Eric Mead, 41, of Lauderhill, Fla., near Miami, smashed the walls and repeatedly kicked a door at the home in the 1200 block of Reading Road (Route 625), near Bowmansville, Trooper Chad S. Roberts said.
Ephrata troopers and East Cocalico Township police arrested Mead shortly after 7 p.m. He was charged with burglary, terroristic threats, simple assault, criminal trespass, endangering the welfare of children, criminal mischief, and public drunkenness, Roberts said.
Mead was sent to Lancaster County Prison after failing to post $150,000 cash bail set by Magisterial Court Judge Nancy Hamill, Denver.
Staff writer John M. Hoober III can be reached at jhoober@LNPnews.com or 481-6027.
